Current paid-for television and other broadcast or on-demand services implement content protection schemes to prevent theft. Traditional content protection is achieved through physical security, encryption, digital rights management, and other schemes. At the customer premise dedicated devices such as a set-top-box (STB) or home media servers are used to decrypt and provide content to the end user. Decryption is performed using temporary keys derived by a trusted computing base (TCB) using root keys “burned” into hardware during fabrication and possibly per-subscriber keys loaded into the TCB by the service enrollment process.
However, with the advent of internet protocol television (IPTV), content can be delivered through multiple networks. In addition, content may be delivered from the STB or media server to remote devices such as personal computers or mobile devices. These new content distribution modes open up additional avenues for theft.